I just hate he had to lose when he was so close to beating Ken Jennings cash earnings record. One or two more wins, he would have passed him. Even more unusual, his loss comes one day after the fifteenth anniversary of Ken’s first game and the fifth anniversary of Julia’s loss. Hopefully James will win the Tournament of Champions in November. Even better, I’d like to see another three month Ultimate Tournament of Champions with the two final games being James, Ken, and Brad.

Why bet so little in FJ if you've got nothing to gain and nothing to lose? The novelty of it?

He had everything to gain if Emma missed FJ. He had every reason to believe that Emma would bet enough to shut him out, so his only chance of winning was a miss by Emma. With that in mind, he played to guard against a double-up by the middle guy, knowing, correctly, that Emma was unbeatable. He absolutely made the right wager.

I just hate he had to lose when he was so close to beating Ken Jennings cash earnings record. One or two more wins, he would have passed him. Even more unusual, his loss comes one day after the fifteenth anniversary of Ken’s first game and the fifth anniversary of Julia’s loss. Hopefully James will win the Tournament of Champions in November. Even better, I’d like to see another three month Ultimate Tournament of Champions with the two final games being James, Ken, and Brad.

Back to Old School Jeopardy? That is going to be a tough transition. It is different than Ken as he played a mostly traditional style with extreme timing and knowledge skills. James played the game differently and I doubt we will see other players adapt his strategy in a meaningful way. I hope for more TDD in the Jeopardy round but am afraid we will go back to the old standby standard of non-thinking $1,000 or $2,000 wagers. It really is going to lose at least some levels of excitement now that I have seen someone play the Jeopardy round the way it should be optimally played. I even doubt the new champ will be aggressive -she likely played it this way out of necessity more than as a general strategy. We will see where she goes for the first clue on Tuesday.

Overall, great run and James lost in a way I wasn’t really expecting as I thought the law of averages would eventually catch up to him and he would miss on a big DJ DD wager, leaving him exposed to a FJ loss.

Ken’s streak is never likely going to be broken. James’ run makes you think the money could be caught but you need a special player.

Is the goal now for someone to at least bump James out of one of the top spots on the single day charts? That is another aspect here - Jeopardy likely has its top single day win for eternity unless the dollar amounts change on the clues, which seems highly unlikely.

Yes, I am disappointed but the show will go on...even if I have to adjust my own expectations of the game itself.

Jeopardy likely has its top single day win for eternity unless the dollar amounts change on the clues, which seems highly unlikely.

J! hasn't doubled its clue values since November 2001. $2,000 in 2001 is equivalent to nearly $2,900 in 2019. It's been long enough that I've got to think they'll increase the clue values again in the next 2-3 seasons. But first I think J! should bump up the 2nd and 3rd place payouts. $1K especially can make it hard for a contestant to cover her costs.

Jeopardy likely has its top single day win for eternity unless the dollar amounts change on the clues, which seems highly unlikely.

J! hasn't doubled its clue values since November 2001. $2,000 in 2001 is equivalent to nearly $2,900 in 2019. It's been long enough that I've got to think they'll increase the clue values again in the next 2-3 seasons. But first I think J! should bump up the 2nd and 3rd place payouts. $1K especially can make it hard for a contestant to cover her costs.

totally agree...about as worthless as the payouts first prize payouts in other countries...you win 1k for third and it is pretty much a losing venture after travel expenses and taxes

King Jame has fallen. Long live King James. His legacy is as the greatest regular-play contestant in the Trebek incarnation of the show. The way he now totally dominates the record books is astonishing. Now we'll get to see how he does in tournaments, including the inevitable matchup with Ken and Brad.

Laughing my butt off at the New York Times spoiling this for the entire country with a push notification.

NYT did the same when he passed $2M. Ugh. Someone posted one of the earliest leaks on my Facebook page. Thanks for that!

not really that big of a deal....if you didn't read anymore than that, you still don't know how dude gets bounced and also don't know the clues of the entire game....i am actually excited to watch knowing that he will no longer be coming into my house on a nightly basis

Laughing my butt off at the New York Times spoiling this for the entire country with a push notification.

Between seeing a link to this story on Twitter and seeing over 20 comments in today's game thread when I went here an hour ago, I knew something was up. Luckily my online episode source already had today's game uploaded, so I didn't have to wait until this evening to watch.

When a dominant champ always makes a long run, I always have ambivalent feelings towards it. Great champs making long runs are always great to see, but it can grow stale after a while for my tastes. Maybe it's because some of these champs wrapped up a majority of their games before Final Jeopardy and I like seeing games go down to the wire, but I digress. But James was fantastic and once he neared Ken's winnings record, I was rooting for him hard to break it. Surprisingly, he didn't get there.

It's really a testament to James that he didn't go out with a whimper. He didn't shoot himself in the foot like Ken did by missing two Daily Doubles and missing Final Jeopardy. Emma and Jay were simply two good competitors that did well enough to limit James.

I know I'm rambling here, but I'm just showing my awe and appreciation. If we ever see a run like this again, I don't think it will be for a long time.

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge."
-Bertrand Russell

Laughing my butt off at the New York Times spoiling this for the entire country with a push notification.

NYT did the same when he passed $2M. Ugh. Someone posted one of the earliest leaks on my Facebook page. Thanks for that!

not really that big of a deal....if you didn't read anymore than that, you still don't know how dude gets bounced and also don't know the clues of the entire game....i am actually excited to watch knowing that he will no longer be coming into my house on a nightly basis

Damn, don't hold back, man! He never gave me a reason not to like him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯